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Tamerlan Tsarnaev heard voices in his head, report says

Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly told his mother that "there were two people living inside of him."

By Kate Stanton
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, right, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, on April 19, 2013. UPI
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, right, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, on April 19, 2013. UPI | License Photo

Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have been schizophrenic, according to an in-depth 18,000-word profile of the Tsarnaev family published this weekend by The Boston Globe.

“He had told his mother that he felt there were two people living inside of him,” recalled Anna Nikaeva, a Chechen who knew the family. “I told her, ‘You should get that checked out.’ But she just said, ‘No, he’s fine.’ She couldn’t accept the tiniest criticism of him. But obviously she was thinking about it enough that she brought it up.”

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Authorities say that the 26-year-old, who was killed last April in a shootout with police, carried out the Boston Marathon bombings with his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar.

Nikaeva made a similar statement to Rolling Stone last summer, adding that Tamerlan's mother, Zubeidat, believed his renewed devotion to Islam would help him.

The Boston Globe report said that the Tsarnaev brothers' parents regularly sought psychiatric help.

Nikaeva's husband, Makhmud Mazaev, even spoke to the Tsarnaev's psychiatrist, Dr. Alexander Niss, about Tamerlan's troubles.

“I told Niss that Tamerlan had some form of schizophrenia. That, combined with smoking marijuana and head trauma from boxing had all made him ill,” Mazaev said. “But Niss thought it was more a form of paranoia. We were just talking, you know, two doctors talking.”

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The rest of the report looks into the turbulent and destructive life of the Tsarnaev family, whose life in a small and crowded Cambridge apartment was married by turbulence, violence, discord and isolation.

Read the whole profile over at The Boston Globe.

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